The James Webb Space Telescope is revolutionizing our ability to detect celestial objects previously unseen, expanding our understanding of the origins of the universe. Astronomers recently found a new population of brown dwarf candidates outside the Milky Way, thanks to Webb’s high sensitivity and spatial resolution. These objects, larger than Jupiter but too small to be stars, provide valuable insights into star formation processes. The discovery suggests that a significant portion of the universe’s mass may be in the form of brown dwarfs, shedding light on the elusive “missing mass” problem in astronomy. The team located these brown dwarfs in the NGC 602 star cluster near the Small Magellanic Cloud, offering a glimpse into an environment comparable to the early universe and deepening our knowledge of cosmic evolution.
